Save Article

High School Graduates Losing Faith in Marriage

By

Mary Pilon

Dec 6, 2010 1:12 pm ET

Marriage in middle America is in big trouble, according to new research.

The report “When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America,” out today from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, explores the so-called “marriage gap” occurring today between highly- and moderately-educated Americans.

“The family lives of today’s high-school graduates are beginning to resemble those of high school dropouts,” the authors write. “With all the attendant problems of economic stress, partner conflict, single parenting and troubled children.”

Among the most alarming findings, according to the Project’s director Prof. W. Bradford Wilcox, is that while marriage as an institution appears to be stronger among highly-educated (those with a college education) Americans, the middle-educated (those with a high-school diploma) are “losing faith in marriage” and the quality of their unions is declining. (Even if the downturn has decreased divorce and infidelity.)

Couples today are less likely to be parts of civic institutions. The number of couples who were members of a nonreligious group decreased the most among the lower-educated couples (those without a high school degree), decreasing from 51% in the 1970s to 22% in the 2000s. Among that group, church attendance dropped from 32% in the 1970s to 23% in the 2000s.

“Civic institutions would reinforce the norm of being married. Marriage wasn’t just connected to having kids, but to others and tasks. A few years ago, couples would have been more buffered in institutions. But today, especially middle-income houses are going to face a variety of stress,” Prof. Wilcox says.

Marriage used to be an entrance into adulthood, Prof. Wilcox says. “Today, marriage is more of a capstone,” taking place after educational goals and careers may be established. Across the board, more women are cohabitating before marriage, according to the report. And highly-educated women were more likely to use birth control (55%) compared with moderately- (35%) and lower-educated (19%).

Moderately-educated households are much more likely than their highly-educated counterparts to have children outside of marriage. In the late 2000s, 6% of babies born to highly-educated mothers were born outside of marriage, while 44% born to moderately-educated mothers and 54% to least-educated mothers were outside of marriage. The percentage of 14-year-old girls with highly-educated mothers and living with both of their parents was 81%, compared with 58% for girls with moderately-educated mothers and 52% with least-educated mothers.

That’s a dramatic shift from the 1980s when only 2% of babies born to highly-educated mothers were born outside of marriage, 13% to moderately-educated mothers and 33% to mothers who were the least educated.

So what’s the problem with people not being married? According to Prof. Wilcox, it’s the intersection between childbirth and marriage that’s troubling. Although the average age for marriage has ticked up steadily for years, the age at which people have children has not, he says. More children today are born outside of marriage and cohabitating couples who aren’t married may not stay together, he says. “It can be a risky situation for a child.”

Among highly-educated households, there hasn’t been a deterioration of marriage, he says. Divorce became less likely for highly-educated couples from the 1970s to the 1990s. In the first 10 years of marriage in the 1970s, 15% of highly-educated couples divorced, decreasing to 11% in the 1990s. But it became more likely for moderately educated couples (36% to 37%) and less likely for the least educated (46% to 36%).

The report utilizes data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the General Social Survey.